The Blurry Middle
by Raola
Summary: Narcissa and Lucius had a daughter. Draco a sister. She just wasn't who the Malfoys wanted. Abandoned as a child, and thought to be a squib, this hidden Malfoy discovers she's not. The Wizarding world is split in two, will she follow in her family's path?
1. Prologue

Hello :) SO. Here goes:

**.**

**PROLOUGE**

"You can't deny it, Narcissa. Not any more. She fell down the stairs and broke her arm, like a muggle child! She should of bounced or SOMETHING."

"She's not even seven yet" she hissed.

"A few _days _and she will be" replied Lucius "and then what? I'm telling you, time is running out_." _He continued with a bitter edge to his voice, "all magical children show that they're magic somehow before they are age seven, and EVERY single Malfoy in the last 4 generations showed they were magic before they were three."

Narcissa stayed silent.

"We don't want this kind of shame on _our family_." He whispered, "What would your _sister_ say?"

Narcissa paused, then nodded, "I understand."

"My daughter, a squib!" he said, putting his head in his hands.

"Don't say that so loud." She snapped. "Draco may hear." The last thing she wanted was her precious son dragged into this.

"What do we do?" said Lucius, despairing. But a moment later, he answered his own question. "She needs to go, we can't keep her. Imagine it, our reputation would be destroyed. We'll give her to some muggle, disown her-"

"But people will talk!"

"People will talk more when she doesn't get her Hogwart's letter" he said curtly.

Narcissa deliberated "we'll have to make an excuse, say she's..."

"Dead." finished Lucius.

Narcissa gasped, "Lucius, she's still our daughter!"

"Is she?" he said, raising an eyebrow. He rolled up his sleeve to display his dark mark. It was pale at the time, but still prominent on his arm. "This is what we signed up for. This is what we stand for Narcissa, and we do not stand for squibs. The Dark Lord may be gone, but on my veins, his mark is still here. And I still believe it. Squibs are _Filth_. We'll give her away and... and,_ we will_ say she's dead."

And for a second Narcissa looked pained, and it appeared as if she was about to say something. But then her face relapsed into it's usual haughty expression, and after a moment all she said was "you're right, I know you're right."


	2. Justice in Green

.

A cold smile played around her lips, and all her cronies sniggered. "Don't have no one now, do you?" said the girl. "No teachers here."

"I- I-" spluttered Ethel as she backed away. "I just want to get home," she said in an unusually quiet voice.

"Pretty blonde hair. Stupid blue eyes. You're disgusting to look at, you are," the girl continued, a sort of bubbling hatred in her tone. "No wonder mummy and daddy didn't want you, they probably threw up whenever they saw you!"

"Stop it," said Ethel, the girl had hit a nerve.

"Touchy!" giggled her bully. "So it's true then! You're a little orphan girl whose parents are dead."

Ethel turned, trying to walk away, but two members of the gang stepped out in front of her, blocking her exit. She was cornered.

"Trying to run away?" piped in another girl with a malicious voice.

These girls had just crowded around her as she had been walking home. It had never been as bad as this before. They had tripped her up in class, laughed at her clothes, said horrible stuff to her at lunchtimes, but today they had stepped up their game.

"I bet your mother was ugly, just like you. I bet she was poor, couldn't afford to keep you," the leader of the pack taunted.

Anger flared in Ethel, "you don't know what you're talking about," she snapped.

But the girl continued. "I don't blame them personally. You're ugly, fat-"

"Shutup!"

"What about your Dad? Alcoholic?"

In one quick movement, Ethel raised her hand and slapped the girl across the face.

"DON'T TOUCH ME YOU FILTH" the girl shrieked, lunging for Ethel, who winced and slunk backwards.

But then a rather extraordinary thing happened. Just as the girl grabbed Ethel's shirt to push her, she squeeled and stepped back, staring down at her own fingers. Her eyes alight, she tried again, and this time she screamed.

"What is it?" said one of the other girls, peering at her friend, who had stopped screaming and now stood staring at her hand incredulously. A sort of green colour was spreading up the girls palm and wrist.

"What have you done?" she screeched at Ethel "you've given me a...a...DISEASE?" Like ink, the strange green was seeping into her skin, spreading till almost her whole arm was the startling colour.

The girls around her all stepped back. "What's happening to you?" one of them whispered.

"It's her fault!" she howled, pointing a green finger at Ethel. "What are you doing to me? MAKE ME NORMAL AGAIN!" The colour was spreading further and further, her neck was now turning green and blotches of the colour had begun to appear on her cheeks.

"I'm not doing anything!" Ethel insisted, and she really wasn't trying to make anything happen. "Honestly, I swear. I'm not-"

"I'm going home now Viv," muttered one of the girls.

"Me too," said another, staring at the ground as she spoke before hurrying off.

"Don't leave!" the girl called to her friends, as they all began to back or run away.

"I hate you, you stupid freak," she spat wildly at Ethel, before running manically after her friends, shouting at them, "you just can't leave me! I'M GREEN, lend me you're jacket, PEOPLE WILL SEE. I need to see a doctor! Call my mum! WHAT IF MY BOYFRIEND SEES ME?"

The girls shouts and echoes faded as she run off, and then Ethel was left alone in the street. Stunned, she stared down at her own hands. They were not green. What had just happened? No- she couldn't of caused it. She hated "Viv" but what had just happened, it was like nothing she had ever seen before. Whatever had just happened, it had saved her. Still shocked, she turned and started walking home, safe (for atleast a little while) from the taunts and the torments of her bullies.


	3. An Unexpected Owl

Just quickly, thankyou to BookWorm77071 for your advice on the punctuation around speech marks, something i need to work on! xD (and hopeully will remember to now) :)

.

The walk home was quiet.

Caroline was the closest thing Ethel had to a mother (and she _was_ very motherly.) She had, so Ethel thought, taken her from the orphanage she had stayed in for the first seven years of her life. Caroline also had two sons, who she adopted as babies. Stephen, who was ten, and Mikey, who was two.

Caroline's house, where Ethel lived, smelt quite strikingly of sweets. It had when Ethel first moved there a seven year old, and it still did when Ethel was almost fifteen. Ethel liked it there, and she liked Caroline, but the house had never quite felt like home to her. She imagined that it must rather be like a close relatives house; comfortable, familiar, but not quite her own/

Ethel opened the door with her house key.

"Hello darling," called Caroline from the kitchen as Ethel walked through the door, "how was it today?"

"It was all right. Though I don't really like it. I'll probably quit," Ethel muttered, slinging her bag down.

"Those girls didn't give you trouble again, did they? If you like this summer club, you stick at it!"

"No, they didn't," Ethel said rather lamely.

"Good."

Ethel passed through the hallway and clambered up the stairs.

"Dinner's in a minute!"

"Great."

She walked into her lilac-walled room and shut the door. Her mind had been buzzing since the incident. Mostly, she felt guilty for how good a feeling she was getting out of Viv's punishment. And a snivelling voice at the back of her mind whispered "She deserved more." But in this room, removed from the noises of the street, it was peaceful.

_THUD. CRASH._

Her eyes snapped to the window. Shocked out of her reverie, her heart skipped a beat. A _beautiful _tawny owl was sitting on her window ledge. It seemed to of flown onto the window sill, and knocked the plant pot off.

The owl was rather strange. It just sat there, looking at her. She didn't have any food, which she presumed it was after.

"What a beautiful owl you are," she said mostly to herself, after admiring it for a while.

Tentatively, she opened the window, and the realised that it was carrying a letter. She took it and then the bird soared off the ledge, disappearing into the clouds.

It was an odd looking letter with a red wax seal. She sat down on her bed, and cautiously, she opened it.

_..  
><em>

_Ethel Stone,_  
><em>Her Bedroom,<em>  
><em>London,<em>  
><em>N1<em>

_Dear young witch or wizard,_

_Earlier tonight (16:17 and 23 seconds, August 21th, 1997) a piece of magic was perfomed by you, in a muggle vicinity, in front of several muggles. You are of Hogwarts age, and it is to be reminded that _**those under 17 years of age, must not perform magic outside of their wizarding school. **

**TWO MORE INCIDENTS MAY LEAD TO EXPULSION OR FURTHER INQUIERY.  
><strong>

_It has been identified that you do not attend Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Please remember that attendance to Hogwarts in the coming school year _**IS COMPULSARY, **_a law enforced by the recent minister for magic, Pius Thicknesse. Appropriate books and equipment for Hogwarts can be purchased at Diagon Alley. Failure to appear at Hogwart's could result in an investigation of your previous magical education, and _**blood status**_ (possibly leading to an investigation.)**  
><strong>_

_Please transfer to Hogwarts before August 25,_

_Best Wishes, _

_Mafalda Hopkirk._

_.._

Ethel skimmed the letter again. What on earth! It might have been some kind of _elaborate _prank on her, revenge for what had happened earlier. But would they of gone to all that trouble, with the owl and everything. It seemed unlikely. And all these words, _muggles_, _Hogwarts_, _minister for magic._

One sentence haunted her inparticular.

_-"Please transfer to hogwarts before August 25" _

That was only four days away. Nothing was bound to happen, but...

Stephen burst into her room, "mum says dinner is ready-" he paused, eyeing the letter she was still holding, "what's that?"

"Nothing," she said, thrusting it behind her back, "homework, boring."

"It doesn't look like homework," he said, and then he darted behind her and yanked it from her hand. If it wasn't for the fact that she felt shaken from the letter, he wouldn't of been fast enough to grab it.

"STEPHEN!" she yelled, running after him as he ran out the room.

"What is Hogwarts Eth?" he said whilst running down the stairs "Is this a joke book?"

"Give it BACK!" she stopped. Caroline stood there staring at Ethel and Stephen, who had frozen upon seeing her.

"Stephen, give me that letter and go in the dining room or your dinner will get cold." After receiving it, Caroline's eyes darted across the page furiously, "where did you get this?" she said.

"I found it."

"Tell me the truth!"

"It appeared on my window ledge."

"Stop being funny Ethelinda,"

"An owl," Ethel replied weakly.

"Oh god."

"It's just a joke or something. Someones played a trick on me, that's all," Ethel insisted.

Caroline stared at her, and whispered, "Ethel, what have you _done_?"


	4. The Knight Bus

"Nothing, I have done nothing. Nothing wrong."

"Ethel, this letter has your name on it! I know you did something."

"I _witnessed_ something, I suppose,"

Caroline raised her eyebrows.

"I Just saw this girl... err, turn green," seeing Caroline's face, she quickly added, "well, there's no way that I actually made her turn green."

"Who was the girl?" Caroline sounded furious.

"Viv. But she was trying to hit me."

"You NEVER use magic as a punishment, NEVER," Ethel had never seen Caroline like this before, suddenly, a sort of venom was radiating out of her.

"But I'm not magi-" Caroline was acting ridiculous.

"I wondered, when you first came."

"That I was a witch? You've got to be kidding me."

"And that poor girl? Will she be like that permanently? PERMANENTLY GREEN."

"Well. It stopped her attacking me didn't it?" objected Ethel, defensive at last.

"Oh, Ethel, you stupid, stupid, girl!" spat Caroline, but a flame of fire burst out of the ground between them, just as Caroline was about to step towards her.  
>The fire stopped, and Caroline just stared at Ethel. <em>If looks could kill<em>, thought Ethel, _I would of stone cold dead_.

"Get out!" Caroline hissed. "Get out of this house. I've got to protect Stephen, protect mike!" She grabbed a broom and started pushing Ethel towards the door with the end of it. Ethel grabbed her letter and opened the door, before being pushed outside. Caroline slammed the door behind her, and Ethel stood alone in the tiny little front garden.

.

Where was she going to go? She hardly ever had arguments with Caroline, and now she was pushing her out the house? It was all crazy, everything that had happened this evening. CRAZYNESS. She wandered down the street, there was nothing else to do but walk. Hopefully Caroline would let her back in later. Or if she didn't, she could always go back to the childrens home she used to live in. Yet suprisingly, Ethel couldn't even remember where that was. With no where to go, she sat down on the curb. She fiddled with some twigs, snapping them in her hands. It would be dark soon.

There was the loud _vrum _of an engine, and she looked up. A gigantic, dark blue Routemaster bus was approaching where she sat, and it was in a terrific speed. _This isn't a bus route! _Her mind exclaimed before she leapt back. This old-fashioned bus came to an abrupt halt before her, and a man dressed in a navy blue uniform stepped out of the back.

He looked very young, with brown (somewhat greasy) hair.

"Welcome to the Knight bus. A bus for the stranded witch or wizard," his accent was faintly Somerset. "Waz the next bit Ernie?"

"You're name!" shouted the man at the front of the bus.

"Oh yeah, zats right!" he adressed Ethel again, "my name is Lyle Spade, and I'm the conductor for the knight bus. Newly appointed, mind you. The previous lad got in a spot of bother, so I stepped in," he looked down at her, "you gonna get on then darlin?"

"I-I-" started Ethel, but Lyle was already pulling her onto the bus.

"No problem," he said, once she was aboard, "take us away Ern!" and the bus leapt into action.

The inside of the Knight bus was not like a bus. It had several rickety beds (with wheels!) and a few collapsing chairs. Lyle leaned against the side of the bus, and the beds continued to roll around.

"Where you going then?"

"I don't really know," she confessed.

"Waz your name?"

"Ethel."

"Pretty name, that is," he said, smiling.

"uh, yeah. It's ok I guess," she said, thinking of how people had teased her about it. It wasn't particularly girly. She stared down at the letter, she was still gripping it in one hand. Diagon Alley, it had said on it. Why not go there? "Diagon Alley," she said, looking up, "that's where I want to go."

"Diagon Alley!" shouted Lyle towards the front, and the bus swiftly changed direction, "you're first in the queue, aint got many passengers tonight."

"oh," she said, "right."

"You look young, to be travelling on your own," he noted.

"I'm fifteen." Well, she was fifteen in a few days. "You don't look much older!" she pointed out.

"Aha!" said Lyle, and he tapped on his forehead, "but I'm very wise up in here. Like a super genius, aint I."

Somehow, Ethel found this hard to believe.

"Stop Flirting with the customers Lyle and make yourself useful! Make me some tea!"

"Alright," said Lyle, his face going red as he marched up to the front of the bus, "I'm coming."  
>It was only half a minute later when the Knight bust came to a jagged stop, and the tea went flying.<p>

"Diagon Alley!" called Lyle, "it's just through that pub, in case you've forgotten," he stared at the floor, embarrassed to look at Ethel now.

"Thank-you," she said, stepping off the bus and coming face to face with a rather grimy looking pub.

She was in God know where, and didn't recognise the area much at all. She opened the door of _The_ _Three Broomstick's _and stepped inside.

A few people looked up as she entered. The pub was gloomy, dark, and had the atmosphere of being rather faded and old. A man in the corner sang wishfully over his drink, and only a few people talked in murmurs. Mostly, the people looked insecure. The man at the bar stared at her suspiciously as she walked in. She couldn's see a way to walk right through. She approached the bar.

"Excuse me?"

"What do you want," the man didn't seem very welcoming.

"I just wondered how to get into Diagon Alley?" she half expected him to tell her there was no such thing.

He grunted, "I'll just let you through, it'll be easier."

So he lead her through the pub and through a door she hadn't even noticed, into a little alley at the back. This better not be it she thought, but then he tapped the wall with a stick, and a door appeared. It was a shock to Ethel, because he had just done _magic_. This was, the first piece of propper magic she'd ever seen, apart from her own. And the stick, she guessed, was actually a wand. There was no doubt that it was a lie now. All the odd things that had happened that night, she sort of knew it was real. But now, there was no way it wasn't. Stepping through that door, she knew, meant her life would change forever. She was magic now.


End file.
